Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Emotional Expression versus Aggression at Meetings - how to tell the difference?

[Joanie Connors (jvcphd]

In addition to the above, verbal aggression is personal. It tries to harm
someone's self-esteem or deprive them of good standing in the group. It's a
put-down that often uses pejorative labels ("stupid", "ignorant",
"corrupt").

Emotional expression focuses on the issues. It may speak to the impact on
people, on how they feel or would feel, but it never attacks other speakers.

Aggression also tends to use loud volume (yelling) and an acid or sarcastic
tone, which seem to heighten the negative effects.

In this election year, I'm finding many occasions to caution friends about
their tone, volume and language! I'll be glad when it's over!




On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 1:19 PM, Igor Cerny/USA/MD/21791/LVC via Cohousing-L
<cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

>
> We having a list of suggestions in our Common House regarding meeting
> conduct.  One of the suggestions is "emotional expression is OK but
> aggression is not."  However, we often debate where the line of demarcation
> is between these two. Have any communities or individuals tackled this
> issue and come up with any specific or even general guidelines that they
> could share?  Thanks in advance for any comments on this topic.
>
>
> Igor Cerny
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